Iran has boosted oil recovery from an offshore field which it shares with the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf, an energy official has said.

Recovery from the Salman oilfield rose by 3,000 b/d after development operations on two wells, a director at the Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) Abbas Rajabkhani said.

Iran had been planning to raise output from Salman to 50,000 b/d, according to media reports. The official said two more wells are being currently drilled to raise output further.

“Due to sensitive conditions of the shared fields, drilling operations as well as repair and maintenance work continue on a regular basis,” Rajabkhani said.

Salman is an old field in service since 1968 with about 1.6 billion barrels of recoverable reserves. It is currently estimated to hold more than 500 million barrels of oil.

Rajabkhani said increasing oil recovery from the field is a priority and IOOC plans to drill new fields to maximize production.

The platforms on the Salman oilfield are some of the biggest in the Persian Gulf with a capacity to produce 220,000 b/d of oil and associated products. They also include gas recovery facilities, which Rajabkhani said, are being prepared for production.

He said the transfer of the Salman gas to Iran’s Siri island could begin in a single train within the next month or in a double train which would take time since it would require repair of the subsea pipeline.

The field is expected to yield 500 million cubic feet of gas per day on top of 6,000 barrels of condensates when production begins.

Iran’s recovery of oil from Salman comes from 44 wells which have yielded 700 billion barrels so far. A 22-inch pipe takes the offshore oil to the Lavan island 144 km away for processing or exports.

About 70% of the field belongs to Iran. The United Arab Emirates which calls it Abu al-Khosh on its side in Abu Dhabi has recovered 400 million barrels so far.

Source: Press TV